The cost of ukulele evangelism (or what microphone)

Nope

I am sure someone has a better idea, but I've been more than happy with my Blue Snowball. It has several settings via toggle switch available, one to eliminate background (if people are nearby, say) and it is made by a very excellent microphone firm. It is USB connected, so plugs into any laptop or computer. The sound surprised me as very good when I did a test. It comes in some different colors (black, brush aluminum or white--I have white) and has a small tripod stand. The price is about sixty-six dollars and that's decent. If you do voice recordings, you can buy a pop filter for it (to remove the sibilant s and plosive consonants) but for the uke, you do not need a filter. There is a vibration shockmount (very cool looking) if you get with drums or tapping feet because this can add noise. I'll see if I can do a sound test for you with my new Mainland uke. Not sure how to attach sound files, but I'll figure it out.

You know your webcam has a mic inside, or they usually do. If you are Skyping, you can use that. If you don't you can get webcam with one. Most webcams come with a mic. By the way, this is the sound sample: http://soundcloud.com/user8183733/kuu Excuse the playing; I've been playing only about a month, so it's a bit rough.

chris667 said:

You're sounding good!

Is there anything in between my webcam mike and the snowball though?

Click to expand...

You mean in terms of quality?

Well, a webcam mic is a general-purpose vocal mic. It's not designed to give you studio-quality recording. But it's good enough for skyping or recording video snippets playing the uke/guitar or whatever.

The frequency response varies a lot depending on the quality of the mic. Low-end mics tend to pick up higher frequencies more (i.e. they're not good at lower frequency sounds).

Go up in quality and you'll find a more even response across the frequency range, so are good for vocals and drums etc. But then you're getting into the $100-$200 bracket.

The other thing is the 'directionality' of the mic. This is to do with how much you can focus the mic in on one sound source. So if you wanted to record *just* the sound of your uke, and eliminate all other sounds in the room. Or whether you want a mic which records from all directions, so this could be for if you're singing and playing at the same time. Or if there are a number of people playing and you want to record the whole room.

It all really depends on how fussy you are over the quality of the sound. If you start noticing background noise, hiss, frequency response etc. in your recordings then it's time for a better mic.

Go with the webcam / cheapest option to start with, and see if you're happy.

C'mon! I know you can make this harder. Think of it as a government project and stop worrying about the cost.

Gwynedd said:

By the way, this is the sound sample: http://soundcloud.com/user8183733/kuu Excuse the playing; I've been playing only about a month, so it's a bit rough.

Click to expand...

Your mainland sounds great! Not sure if that is because of either the mic, the uke, or the combination of both

You can save some money on a tuner by using: http://www.get-tuned.com/online_ukulele_tuner.php

Sorry to hear about the drive failure. Here's the mic I bought recently: http://www.amazon.com/Samson-Mic-Compact-USB-Microphone/dp/B001R76D42/ref=pd_cp_MI_3

I don't know how it compares in quality to the Blue Snowball, but it is less expensive. FWIW, the reviews on Amazon are very positive.